He did
not do so; and it is more easy to say that he was to blame, than to show
good cause for the stigma cast upon him for the result of this day.
However much Hooker's after-wit may have prompted him to deny it,
his despatch of 4.10 P.M., to Sedgwick, shows conclusively that he
himself had adopted this theory of a retreat. "We know that the enemy
is flying," says he, "trying to save his trains. Two of Sickles's
divisions are among them."
And it is kinder to Hooker's memory to assume that he did not apprehend
a flank attack on this evening. If he did, his neglect of his position
was criminal. Let us glance at the map.
We know how the Eleventh Corps lay, its reserve removed, with which it
might have protected a change of front, should this become necessary,
and itself facing southerly. What was on its left, to move up to its
support in case of an attack down the pike? Absolutely not a regiment
between Dowdall's and Chancellorsville, and near the latter place only
one division available. This was Berry's, still luckily massed in the
open north of headquarters. And to Sickles's very deliberate movement
alone is due the fact that Berry was still there when the attack on
Howard burst; for Sickles had bespoken Berry's division in support of
his own advance just at this juncture.
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